The present application relates generally to indicating to a medical device the performance of an operation by another medical device.
Whole blood is made up of various cellular and non-cellular components such as red cells, white cells and platelets suspended in its liquid component, plasma. Whole blood can be separated into its constituent components (cellular, liquid or other) using apheresis, and the separated component can be administered to a patient in need of that particular component.
The administration of blood and/or blood components is common in the treatment of patients suffering from disease. Infusion of white blood cells (i.e., mononuclear cells or MNCs), after the cells have undergone some additional processing or treatment, may also be prescribed for therapeutic reasons including treatment of diseases that specifically involve the white blood cells. Thus, it is often desirable to separate and collect the desired blood component from whole blood and then treat the patient with the specific blood component. The remaining components may be returned to the donor or retained for other uses.
Extracorporeal photopheresis (also sometimes referred to as extracorporeal photochemotherapy) may be a process that includes: (1) collection of MNCs from a patient, (2) photoactivation treatment of the collected MNC cells; and (3) reinfusion of the treated cells back to the patient. More specifically, ECP may involve the extracorporeal exposure of peripheral blood mononuclear cells combined with a photoactive compound, such as 8-methoxypsoralen or “8-MOP” which is then photoactivated by ultraviolet light, followed by the reinfusion of the treated mononuclear cells to the patient. It is believed that the combination of 8-MOP and UV radiation causes apoptosis or programmed cell death of ECP-treated T-cells.
Photopheresis methods include online and offline methods. In online methods, a dedicated photopheresis device may be used to perform the therapy and reinfusion of treated MNCs. Such devices are “dedicated” photopheresis devices, designed only for performing photopheresis and do not perform other collection protocols needed in a hospital or blood processing setting including, for example, multifunctional apheresis protocols for collection of platelets, plasma, RBCs, granulocytes and/or perform plasma/RBC exchange protocols. In offline photopheresis methods, a multifunctional apheresis device may be used to collect mononuclear cells. The collected MNCs, typically contained in one or more collection containers, are severed or otherwise separated from the tubing set used during collection, where they are later treated in a separate irradiation or UVA light device followed by manual reinfusion of the treated cells to a patient. However, during such offline methods, when the cells are transferred from the apheresis device to the irradiation device (which device may be located in another room or laboratory) communication with the donor must be severed and accordingly, the cells detached from the donor. Thus, additional traceability procedures are required to insure that the treated MNC product is ultimately reinfused into the correct donor. In offline photopheresis systems, cell irradiation is documented using paperwork and is only linked back to the apheresis collection through paper records.